Raghuram Rajan Report: Ranking of Indian States

Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have been identified as the 'least developed' states by the Raghuram Rajan Committee which had been set up for "Evolving a Composite Development Index of States".

Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been named as the most developed states. Finance Minister P Chidamabaram informed that Prime Minister Mamnmohan Singh had directed that the recommendations of the Committee may be examined and necessary action in this behalf may be taken. Chidamabaram said that the Committee has proposed a general method for allocating funds from the Centre to the states based on both a state's development needs as well as its development performance.

The Committee has recommended that each state may get a fixed basic allocation of 0.3 per cent of overall funds, to which will be added its share stemming from need and performance to get its overall share. The Committee has also come up with a Multi Dimensional Index of Backwardness based on per capita consumption as measured by the NSSO, the poverty ratio, and a number of other measures which correspond to the multi dimensional approach to defining poverty outlined in the Twelfth Plan.

The Committee has recommended that states that score 0.6 and above on the Index may be classified as "Least Developed"; states that score below 0.6 and above 0.4 may be classified as "Less Developed"; and states that score below 0.4 may be classified as "Relatively Developed".

Chidamabaram also stated that the Committee has observed that the demand for funds and special attention of different states will be more than adequately met by the twin recommendations of the basic allocation of 0.3 per cent of overall funds to each state and the categorisation of States that score 0.6 and above as "least developed" states. According to the Committee, these two recommendations, along with the allocation methodology, effectively subsume what is now "Special Category".

The six-member committee consisted of Raghuram G Rajan (Chairman), Shaibal Gupta (member), Bharat Ramaswami (member), Najeeb Jung (member), Nirija G Jayal (member), Tuhin Pandey (member).

#	States	Score	Category
1	Odisha	0.798	Least Developed
2	Bihar	0.765
3	Madhya Pradesh	0.759
4	Chhattisgarh	0.752
5	Jharkhand	0.746
6	Arunachal Pradesh	0.729
7	Assam	0.707
8	Meghalaya	0.693
9	Uttar Pradesh	0.638
10	Rajasthan	0.626
11	Manipur	0.571	Less Developed
12	West Bengal	0.551
13	Nagaland	0.546
14	Andhra Pradesh	0.521
15	Jammu & Kashmir	0.504
16	Mizoram	0.495
17	Gujarat	0.491
18	Tripura	0.474
19	Karnataka	0.453
20	Sikkim	0.430
21	Himachal Pradesh	0.404
22	Haryana	0.395	Relatively Developed
23	Uttarakhand	0.383
24	Maharashtra	0.352
25	Punjab	0.345
26	Tamil Nadu	0.341
27	Kerala	0.095
28	Goa	0.045